δρόμος προς ουρανού – Road to the Sky
by deep.in.darkness
Summary: There were two ancient roads - The Road to the Sky, and the Road to the Sea. Rumour says that at the end of The Road to the Sky lives a Charmspeaking god, who has the ability of powerful persuasion. PIper seeks him to sate her curiosity, but her journey and its ending may just destroy her heart. But it doesn't matter, when that's the only thing she has left.


Ever since she was young, Piper McLean had known she was different.

At first, she didn't even notice it. When the other children asked the teacher if they could go play further onto the beach, where the waves lapped gently at the sand, the woman's face would wrinkle up, and her grey hair flung from side to side, dandruff flying out as she shook her head, eyes glaring in disapproval. But when Piper asked, the teacher's face seemed to glow as she graciously allowed not only Piper, but _all_ the children to go play by the sea. On the beach, Piper could see her teacher's eyebrows furrow in confusion as the children had played merrily for ten minutes, before her face would become a ripe apple, steam billowing out of her ears, as she'd shout, "Piper McLeam_ For goodness' sake, girl, what have you done?_", then she'd usher them all back into the classroom, and the children, although confused as to the hundred-eighty rotation in their teacher's behavior, managed to glare at Piper as if she had robbed them of their favorite toys as they glanced back wistfully towards the blue ocean.

Piper was confused at the time, yes, but she didn't think twice about it.

That was until sixth grade. It had been on a field trip, to the main city where Piper's class – a mix between kids and teens – had gone to help out at the local orphanage. _Why would the school even think of doing this?_, Piper thought, shaking her head as she watched a couple of guys from her class chase a butterfly around like crazy dogs, _Asking kids to take care of kids?_ Shrugging her shoulders in mild disbelief, she turned back towards the 'gang" she belonged to, mentally grimacing in disgust at the amount of makeup the girls were wearing as she approached them.

"Oh, Piper, darling, there you are! I almost thought you had gotten _lost_, you poor little thing. After all, mummy's not here to take care of you, is she?" Drew, the self-promoted leader of the group of girls giggled, and Piper wanted to puke when she saw the amount of glitter Drew was wearing on her eyelids. The rest of the girls giggled reluctantly, and the fake laughter almost killed her ears.

"Well, Drew, looks like you dumped another jar of glitter on your eyes today," Piper started, and she could already see some of the girls sniggering in agreement, "It's okay, _dear, _some people are just like that." Drew's face was turning a furious shade of red, but it merely made Piper all the more amused.

""By the way, you're one of those people. I'm not." the girls in the group broke out in full-scale laughter this time, laughs racking their bodies and tickling their sides, before a harsh glare from a red-cheeked Drew (red blush enhanced by her natural embarrassment and anger) shut them up almost immediately.

"And what exactly makes you think you're better than me, Piper McLean?" The question was spit out, hostile, and Piper looked around for an answer, her gut feeling shrieking out in agreement when she saw the local mechanic's, various types of cars outside it. (Her gut feeling simultaneously yelled in protest at the same time, but Piper ignored it.)

"Fine. A challenge," Piper started, and she could see Drew's face light up in shock as she grinned in satisfaction, having gotten the response she had sought for, "the local mechanic's. By any method, whoever gets the car first will win." There was no way Drew would refuse such a challenge, for two reasons. One, her pride: she wouldn't want to refuse a dare from Piper (whom she scorned on a daily basis), and she had to prove her authority as the "leader" of her little gang. Secondly, Piper was small, skinny, and on the other hand Drew was the daughter of the giant himself, her broad shoulders and square jaw rendering her feminine makeup ineffective. To Drew, the challenge probably looked like an easy win, but Piper knew better.

"Fine." Drew finally gave the expected answer; her head lifted pompously, lips curved into a sadistic smile. Not wasting time, piper immediately darted off towards the mechanic's, but as she thought, a coupled of Drew's faithful minions, knocked her over, and she fell onto the ground, knees bruised, glaring at Drew who was running off on her stubby legs, and with a wince, she got up and started running. When she got to the local mechanic's, her bruised knees a great source of unwanted pain, Piper didn't know whether to feel happy or pity for Drew and her devoted followers, because the stupid idiots where attempting to haul the smallest car outside the mechanic's with their bare hands.

_How to go about this?_, Piper wondered. Though Drew would lose face for not being able to complete a challenge that Piper, who was ranked lower on the social pyramid in the school, had given to her, Piper herself would feel even more humiliated for being unable to finish a dare that she herself had created. She looked around for objects she could possibly use, but unless the local mechanic had a crane that she could use and learn to operate, she wasn't going to get far. She sighed.

_Maybe, I could kindly ask the owner to just give me a car?_, she mused, assessing her situation. Looking at the tools she had right now, Piper really had nothing to lose, so she just casually walked up to the owner, the words spilling out of her mouth almost naturally.

"Sir," Piper asked, the bearded face of the owners popping out of the blue from under the table, an oily finger scratching tousled grey hair, eyes unfocused as if in a daze, "Could I have a car, please? Any car will do, thanks." She smiled at him, the dimples in her cheeks showing as she gestured to the cluster of cars around her, and the bearded man, eyes still unfocused, trance-like, rummaged through the pockets of his pants slowly, as if deciding every curl and move of his fingers as he continued searching, eventually bringing out a ring of car keys, slung around his index finger. He fumbled with the ring before handing a car key to Piper, and he didn't say a single word during their exchange, but smiled tightly when she thanked him for the key, skipping happily towards, coincidentally, the same car Drew and her minions were trying to carry, opening the doors with a click, sliding into the driver's seat, a rare grin of satisfaction plastered on her face.

She had tried to drive the car away, doing exactly what she always saw people doing, and making use of the books she read, one foot on the gas pedal, one foot on the brake pedal, both hands on the steering wheel, but she somehow managed to crash around five other cars around the area, giving Drew and a couple of other girls broken legs and hands. The mechanic said that she had stolen the key from him, but he seemed not to remember anything about Piper at all. Needless to say, she was expelled, her father frowning in disapproval, but he upheld his view, that Piper didn't do anything, and she really only asked for a car, as unbelievable as that was. Piper didn't say anything. Her mother's death was hard enough on him. And so she agreed when her father asked if she wanted to be homeschooled, being the obedient daughter she had to be.

And of course, being the concerned parent he was, Piper's father decided to shoo her out of the house, pushing some money for the downtown fair into her hands, telling her that she should go have fun and relax instead of just staying at home and reading books. Piper allowed herself to step out the door, thinking, _but I don't want to have fun and relax. _But nevertheless, she tried to enjoy herself, trying out everything at the festival (the few notes her father had shoved into her hand were worth more than she thought), and though there was a skip in her step when she walked down the cobbled path, a melting popsicle in her hand, she felt oddly dissatisfied, as if there was something around here that she should be noticing.

Piper stopped in front of a shady little tent, the cardboard sign propped up against it saying in scribbled marker letters, 'Fortune Telling' Lifting the purple flap, the stars feebly hanging on to the tattered cloth, she stepped into the tent hesitantly, looking around anxiously, fully expecting a strange creature of some sort to jump out at her at once. But when her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she merely saw a crazy old lady sitting at a desk with only three legs, wrinkled hands casting shadows over her crystal ball. Piper snorted. How classic.

She sat down, pulling back the wobbly rocking chair on the other side of the woman, tapping her brown boots on the damp ground, wondering vaguely if the frizzy I-just-got-electrified hair lady had ever thought of putting a carpet below the tent before she looked up, immediately meeting the bright green eyes of the so-called fortune teller.

"So, young child," _Okay, this woman was a lunatic_, "have you come to seek my services today-y-y-y?" The last letter of the word dragged as the note emerged as a E flat, but swooping up into an A.

"U-umm…yeah…" Piper murmured, leaning back in her seat in a desperate attempt to get as far away as possible, but watched in mild interest as the lady began flinging her hands dramatically around the crystal ball, which was sparkling. Piper narrowed her eyes, but shook her head. It was probably an illusion with glitter. She positively jumped in her seat when the woman suddenly lurched forward, whipping a stack of cards out and somehow able to spread the cards neatly in a row in front of Piper, all the while wiggling her eyebrows.

"Chose two." The woman's frizzy hair flicked as she showed two wrinkly fingers decorated with jewels and rings of various sorts. Piper was prepared to bet that around half of them came from the stand just a few steps away, the metallic plastic bands trembling lightly. In response to the lady's statement, she reached forward tentatively to pluck two dog-eared cards from the pile. Piper looked to the lady for further instructions but was instead given a palm, which she put her cards onto.

The 'fortune-teller' haa-ed and hmm-ed as she scrutinized the cards, as though they held the secrets of the universe, twisting them this way and that, even going so far as to hold it up to the ceiling (where there were no lights at all, mind you), in an attempt to look at the card clearly.

After minutes of observing the two poor cards in any way possible, the lady finally put them down, and Piper mentally sighed in relief. At least it meant she would probably get out of this obviously fake fortune-teller's tent all the sooner.

"My child…" the frizzy-haired woman leaned forward to peer at Piper, palms pressed flat against the surface of the rickety old table.

"Y-yeah?", Piper answered reluctantly, eyes darting towards the flap to safety not so inconspicuously.

"Be careful of what lies ahead of you. There will be storms and lightning in your path, and in the end, the gold is not always real gold. My dear, things will only go well for you if you stick to the path you ought to take. Because, darling, you are a charmspeaker."

"_Charmspeaker."_

The first time the word passed Piper's lips was during a moment of thought.

When she had first heard the word, Piper's brain had barely processed it, settling for staring blankly at the creepy witch slash totally (or maybe not?) fake fortune-teller as the frizzy haired woman had whispered to her, almost as if it was a secret, something she wasn't supposed to know.

Something _bad._

The word had felt foreign on her lips as she repeated it again and again, as if that might help her make some sense of it. The stories her father had told her when she was younger was enough to tell her what charmspeakers were. Piper had the abilities to convince anyone of absolutely anything, and thinking about what had happened to her before, in the past, sadly, she had to confirm with some sort of weary resignation, that _I'm a charmspeaker and there's really nothing I can do about it_.

Sliding off her bed gracefully, wrinkling the previously smooth cotton sheets, she tiptoed out of her room, and into her father's study, where a collection of books on any subject and every subject could be found. Piper breathed in the musty scent of ancient knowledge as she padded through the various shelves, eyes squinting for the section she had always been fascinated with, even at the young age of four, and walking a few more steps forward, she was pleasantly surprised to find it right in front of her.

Engraved in polished gold, the words on the mahogany bookshelf read 'Magic, and various Other Oddities'. _A strange place, _Piper mused, finger tracing the cursive letters, _for a strange person._

She found the book she was looking for relatively easily, giving an accomplished smile to the labeling in the form of a large, gilded, slanted word, covering most of the cover, the background a rich royal purple.

"Charmspeaker." Piper whispered aloud, this time tracing the word with her tongue and lips. She eagerly flipped open the book, poking at the Table of Contents.

"Author's Views." Nah.

"An introduction to different Charmspeakers. Page 3." She recited, immediately flipping to the page while absentmindedly walking back to her room and flopping down on her purple beanbag at the corner, settling in comfortably.

"Charmspeakers usually come in the form of animals," Piper followed the words with her eyes attentively, "mostly in the form of snakes, cats, and humans." _That must be why old Mrs. Cartney's cat is so good at convincing people to give her treats._

"They have the ability to convince anyone of anything," she continued, "but that solely depends on the power of the Charmspeaker. The stronger the Charmspeaker, the more persuasive they are, and the higher their resistance to Charmspeaking."

Piper shut the book, both hands splayed on either side of it. The book as useful indeed, but boring. _I'll have to consult father, then, _she thought, peeping at the clock. Seven, she noted, and half an hour until her father would be home. Another half an hour to waste away. Piper mentally facepalmed at just how boring her life was. The Charmspeaker thing had been the only subject on her mind, the only thing that had piqued her interest, and she was at a dead end on the matter until her father got home. She lay on her bed, waiting for the doorbell to wake her up.

Piper's father was by no means a stupid man. A beloved researcher, and a discoverer of information that had saved many people, he had to be one of the smartest people living in the city. But even he was shocked at his daughter's sudden interest in Charmspeakers.

"What's with the sudden interest in Charmspeakers, Piper?" Dr. McLean's mustache twitched in interest.

"I always thought you were more interested in those ah…what were they called again? Oh yes, Truthseekers."

"I was four at the time, dad."

"You were nicer then." An amused smile.

"DAD!" Piper groaned.

"Alright, alright, Pipes," Piper secretly smiled at the nickname, "what do you want to know?"

"Tell me more about Charmspeakers, dad."

"Alright," Dr. McLean put down his fork and knife for a second, and brushed the gravy off his mustache before continuing, "Ahem…so Charmspeakers are, really, an ancient species. The last one ever spotted was found around ten thousand years ago. Scary creature, that one was. I saw him once, briefly, and he was mighty handsome too, if I may say. Blonde hair, blue eyes, lean physique…whatever it is that you girls like nowadays."

"What happened to him, dad?"

"Well obviously, he was a Charmspeaker. They tried to keep him in prison, but he just used his Charmspeaking skills and escaped. People say he lives at the end of the Road to the Sky nowadays."

"Road to the Sky? I've never heard of that."

Piper's dad smiled gently.

"Of course you wouldn't, child. Old story, that is. Sure you want to hear it?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Well you see, and this is only a myth, mind you," Dr. McLean waggled his fingers in front of an enrapture Piper, "But they say there were two roads. One leading to the sky and one leading to the sea. The Charmspeaker you're so curious about is said to live at the end of the Road to the Sky. Pretty road, but dangerous. I've never heard of anyone coming back from there ever. The Charmspeaker that live sat the end's said to be one of the most powerful Charmspeakers the world has ever seen. You'd love it there, Pipes."

The village sounded beautiful, and the adventure even more so. Piper was extremely curious now – and filled with a burning need to satisfy her curioustiy.

"Can we go there one day, dad?"

"Yes we will, child, yes we will."

The thought of the Charmspeaker and new adventures were all Piper had from the moment on. During class, she would dream of coming down that Road to the Sky, and declaring herself to be the first one to ever go along that path and make it out alive. And so she dreamed and dreamed, and she continued believing that one day, she would go there with her father, she would go up and down the Road to the Sky, and make her father proud.

Easier said than done.

Tears welled up at the edges of Piper's eyes as she stood on the soft cemetery soil, hands clenched in black gloves, a sea of other people adorned in similar costume swarming around her, offering their sympathies and good-lucks, but she didn't even look up to acknowledge them, and just stare at the ground, willing the tears not to fall.

The crowd dispersed within a couple of hours, and Piper was left alone in the cemetery, the doleful sound of mellow winds sweeping the grass the sound within earshot. In the lonely silence, she finally allowed herself to fall to her knees in front of her father's grave, her fingers tracing the words of his name, of her father that had since been gone.

"W-why?..." A chocked sob wrenched out of her lips, and she had to bite them until they bled in order to stop herself from screaming, having a tantrum, yelling at the world because out of everyone who could've been chosen for the expedition, did it have to be her father? The Road to the Sky… the name that had been so prominent in Piper's childhood, the name that hadn't mattered to her so much to her anymore…until now. This year, the youngsters living in the city were too cowardly to volunteer for the expedition, and so the government had decided to use the traditional method, choosing a name out of a box. Piper pressed her hand against the cool marble, recalling the foreboding letter her father had received, and the horrible, horrible letter she had received a half-year later, her cries of anguish at the news of her father's death rousing even the meanest neighbours, Mrs. Cartney and her husband from down the road, to attend his funeral.

But now, she had a purpose again. Piper stood, brushing invisible dust off the front of her black dress, her eyes determined, mouth set in a firm line. Her dream since her childhood had been rekindled again, and this time, even without her beloved father, she would find the person at the end of the Road to the Sky. This time, not only to know his secrets, to know someone who was like her, but to discover what had killed her precious father.

And she would succeed.

**The Road to the Sea - Annabeth's Point of View**

**COMING SOON!**

Author's Note:

Just a heads up, this story is only going to be a two-shot or three-shot, depending on how long it turns out! I have exams this week, so I might not have enough time to update, but I'll try to post the first part for "The Road to the Sea", and then Piper's story will continue. I hope you liked the first part, and comments are always good! B-)

Thanks everyone!


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